O2 has stopped offering 12 month contracts for customers.
All new customers will now have to accept the 18 months contract offers,
reports Astigan.com

There is, however, nowadays a tendency towards 18-month
contracts and O2 tries to follow it. GfK statistics show that in July over 84
per cent of new customers choose 18 month contract agreements.

Also, it seems that the general trend is for long term
contracts such as 18 months or 24 months. Most networks try to discourage 12
month deals by not offering the best deals available for this short time
contract.

However, GfK found out that 12 month contracts have actually
increased between January and July from 11 per cent to 17 per cent , but after
that they immediately decreased with approximately 10 per cent.